Do you train to sweat and learn or to sweat or learn? If you just want to sweat you should go to yur local big box gym and pay $20 a month to sweat and check out the pretty people on treadmills. If you want to learn something while you sweat you can come see me. Here’s the kicker; to learn you have to try doing what those with more experience are going to share with you. You also have to accept that it probably won’t work out that well the first few times.
I was rolling with a mechanical bull last night in MMA. I said stop muscling and he went to sleep. I said you have to do something then I was riding the mechanical bull again. I was pretty chill last night and looking to just roll. Once the game got stupid due to muscle head not knowing what to do so he tried to bench press out of top mount and knee me in the face while trying to get side control…… all I can say is I wasn’t chill anymore and it wasn’t pretty.
If you are “working” with me I will work with you. If you ignore technique and just go hard, I am coming at you just as hard and with some of my more painful and mean techniques. If you don’t want to play nice I won’t.
One thing lead to another and a few choice words were exchanged. Once cooler heads prevailed we got down to it. Basically fear of getting caught leads to crazy behavior! When you are training you can’t be afraid of getting caught. If you are not, you are training with the wrong guys. You need to be pushed by people that are better, that know more, and that can teach. For your own benefit, chill out and accept that you will be getting tapped out and it is nothing to fear.
If you spaz out every time a good guy catches you, you are missing a chance to learn. It’s the whole “Forrest through the trees” metaphor. If you start spazzing and missing what is actually happening you miss the chance to learn a submission or escape that will work more often than your flip flop knee kick to the ass rolling push up escape.
It’s called rolling for a reason. If it was supposed to be a nasty mess of knees and elbows it would be called “scrapping”. But no, it’s called rolling because it is supposed to be a flowing motion of move/counter move. You have to chill and go with the flow or you will never get a style that works no matter the size and strength of your opponent.
I am always writing about letting go. This is just another one of those times where you have to let go and find how to fit the right pieces together. You can’t jam a circle thru a square. Find the flow and make it work.
Now go train!
Brian Wright
Real Elite